Poor foundation, wobbly skyscraper

In part 2 of a series, the author says the challenge for an incoming CEO is to clean up the mess, if any, quietly and without blame

Writing about CEO departures in his book, The Hero’s Farewell, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld described the end of an illustrious career as a plunge into the abyss of insignificance, a kind of mortality. Does a successor have to clean up the predecessor’s mistakes? Yes, for sure. It is good to remember that the mess, if any, has probably been contributed to by several predecessors, not one single person — think of bank NPAs as an example. 

No predecessor can leave a clean slate for the successor that is part of enterprise and entrepreneurship. This has been admitted by Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO